Unfortunately Jordi Jorba has sustained a long-term injury. And surprisingly enough Iñaki Villanueva and Joan Losada have been included in spite of choosing to focus on his work for next months, reasons for their absences in Sevens World Series group of players. A first three-day training camp will be held next week in Sant Cugat with 32 players attending.

- Senor Independiente victory over UE Santboiana in Week 1 has been appealed because after three yellow cards in last 10 minutes Independiente fell below the minimum number of players eligible for national team. It's suppose to be 6 at anytime, but as always in Spain rules are written in a bizarre way.- Supercopa will be played in Valladolid (Pepe Rojo, the usual rugby ground), in a decision that won't be well received by Santboiana fans.- Basque Rugby Union is considering a new league with French Basque teams from 2020. Its president claims FER charges clubs too much and travel costs are unreasonable considering they have high quality rivals just a few kilometres away. What's the funniest thing? Spanish Rugby Union president is Basque too... To be honest I begin to fear Spain qualifying for 2019 RWC might just be a farewell to our rugby national team, considering how the political climate currently is here.

- Senor Independiente victory over UE Santboiana in Week 1 has been appealed because after three yellow cards in last 10 minutes Independiente fell below the minimum number of players eligible for national team. It's suppose to be 6 at anytime, but as always in Spain rules are written in a bizarre way.

This is an absolute bizarre appeal. I mean the players are technically still playing, but took the position in the sin bin

How to grow rugby worldwide?Look at the world ranking in July. Teams ranked 1-10 have to play one team from 11-20 (they don't play in a regular competition) away the next year. 11-20 play 21-30 away and so on. Yes, it really is that simple.

As I said, rules are written in a bizarre way. Instead of rewriting an article, it seems they've been amended and reamended a certain number of times and end up not having any meaning... or having multiple possible meanings at the same time. I'll translate it and you'll see how crazy it is: "During all the time a game of this competition is in play the maximum number of players "not locally formed" that will be allowed on the pitch will be 9. This number shall not be exceeded even in the event of replacements or ejections, whether temporary or definitive, having the team to play with, if it's the case and it was necessary to, less players than those initially permitted. That means that on the pitch there must be at least 6 "locally formed" players".

All the article says what you say, but the last sentence implies there must be 6 eligible players at anytime. As if in a xenophobic way rules only predicted foreign players can be sent off

World Rugby visited Spain and were presented a development roadmap. There's a lot of bla, bla, bla in the video (in English), but they say they want at least one T2 in 2019 RWC quarterfinals and two of them by 2023:

Things aren't looking good for Santboiana. They lost their appeal from Week 1 game against Independiente and are winless so far, plus Veintidós says they have financial issues again and some playing are looking for a spot in other Liga Heineken teams. They are due to play Supercopa in a fortnight against VRAC Quesos Entrepinares.

They voted in the referendum on their way from La Vila Joiosa. But Sant Boi isn't exactly the most pro-independence town in Catalonia and anyway Spanish rugby has always seen pro-independence flags in many stadiums (don't forget half of Liga Heineken teams are from Catalonia and Basque Country) and nothing ever happened. Hernani even used to have ETA members in their team not so long ago. I don't think this issue is going to affect rugby.

And let me tell you something on a personal note. I've been in Catalonia for the last few days, I've got family and friends there and things are way more quiet than you may think by watching TV or reading online media. Is there tension? Yes. Is there a divide? Of course there is. But people sit on terraces and drinks beers on the evening as if nothing was going on. We're not on the brink of a civil war.

Headline is a pun, since Asturias anthem is "Asturias, patria querida". Steve Tew, Grant Fox, Kevin Mealamu, Jordie Barrett and Israel Dagg have been spending time with local teams and young players this week before the official ceremony. And yeah, by the time it comes they will have probably done a hundred hakas

- Big clash this week with Valladolid local derby, Sunday 12:30- Bruno Postiglione, capped by Argentina, has signed with Bizkaia Gernika after spending a week training with Barça- Chris Eaton arrival to Valladolid (VRAC bound) has been delayed due to visa issues with his family- Elche hosts this weekend a 7s tournament to prepare World Series. Spain, Viator Barbarians, France, Wales, Ireland and Russia in the men's tournament and Spain, Valencia, England, Ireland, Wales and Belgium in the women's one.

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I've had a look to YouTube stats from live streaming feeds. There was a 50% increase in views last season, with each game over 2,000 on average. And this season more than 60% of the games streamed have improved their figures. We're far from TV audiences, where we're slightly over 30,000 per game, but growth is there. I imagine this is a good lesson for other nations where streaming of their leagues is less developped or a source of conflict.

In case somebody wonders, most followed teams are both clubs from Valladolid, with around 3,000 views per regular season game and similar figures in play-offs even though they were broadcast live on TV.

Only four Spanish-born players in a 26 players list hasn't been exactly welcome by fans, but I remember last year almost all French legion played against Tonga and then we fielded a more home-based team against Uruguay, so I wouldn't discard big changes for the game against Brazil.